The product: Burberry Khaki Green No. 205 Nail Polish

Here’s a thing that’s really real: us. We are stripped down; laid bare. Everyone can see right through your translucent skin, stretched thin like the connective tissue under your tongue, holding it back. Everyone can see that I miss you, all the way into my bottle of Burberry Khaki Green Nail Polish – always too thick.

I am a longtime fan of Burberry Nail Polish (Burberry Poppy Black is my favourite), but I’ll be honest: I’ll take any expensive nail polish for a run. Anything that’ll settle evenly, with a wide brush and opaque colour. I’m not picky; I’ll do a bit of YSL, or even a good mass market shade if the formula makes it easy.

(I’ll use anything but Essie, and I won’t have anyone but you.)

The Burberry Khaki Green vibe

These photos were shot in Montréal, and this nail polish has a good vibe for the city. It’s cool, the way Montréal is cool. Nothing in Edmonton is cool like this: industrial and a little weird. It’s a little bit big city; interesting and dark, like the barista with the queer haircut who always gets your coffee just right but your name all wrong.

It’s shot here against two things: a metal-framed bookshelf with a sliding ladder, and a bright orange chaise that I would never own. I loved them both, in the way that one can love things that they’re going to leave behind. (I am not a cool person, or a big city person, and neither one of us could ever pull off orange anything.)

With roughly five shades available at any given time, Burberry’s nail polish range is always a very edited collection. I’d love to see their silver glitter shade (usually a holiday release) make its permanent debut, as well as a few more complex colours – maybe a dark teal to start. For now, Burberry Khaki Green is a lovely little weirdo, and it’ll keep me together while I wait.

Availability: $23 USD at Net-a-Porter.